The present invention relates to a novel organosilicon compound and a method for the preparation thereof as well as a room temperature curable organopolysiloxane composition, which is referred to as a RTV silicone composition hereinbelow, formulated with the organosilicon compound as a curing agent.
There are known several different types of RTV silicone compositions capable of giving a cured product having rubber-like elasticity according to the mechanism of the reaction for the crosslink formation in which different kinds of condensation products are liberated in the course of curing including acetic acid, an amine compound, an oxime compound, an alcohol compound and the like. The toxicity and/or corrosiveness as well as the offensive odor of the condensation products such as the acetic acid, amine and oxime compounds present a serious problem in the practical application of the RTV silicone compositions when they are cured with liberation of these noxious gases. The compositions curable by the dealcoholation condensation are disadvantageous in the relatively low stability of a ready-mixed composition in storage.
Therefore, an improvement has been recently proposed according to which the curing agent formulated in the RTV silicone composition is an alkenyloxy-containing organosilicon compound and the condensation product liberated in the course of the curing reaction thereof is a relatively innoxious ketone compound. A problem in such a deketonation-type composition is the extremely high cost of the alkenyloxy-containing organosilicon compound due to the very lengthy time taken for the synthesis of the compound and the low yield of the desired reaction product, for example, in the range of 50 to 60%.
Accordingly, the inventors have conducted extensive investigations to seek a novel organosilicon compound usable as a curing agent in a RTV silicone composition free from the above described problems and disadvantages in the prior art curing agents or compositions.